I miss blogging, and I blame HP!

...well, and this full time job of mine, but that's beating a dead horse at this point.

Anyhow....
I have had such MASSIVE problems with my current HP notebook. I never should have bought an HP G-series. Never.
My last HP was AWESOME. {HP Pavilion}
I should have known there were problems with this one when I didn't care for the way the mouse buttons felt to my little thumbs. {I'm just sayin....}

So, my complaint about this G series HP notebook: you fire it up, and less than 3 minutes into things, everything just freezes. It's doing the same thing in safe mode. It's doing the same thing even after it was wiped clean & restored to the factory settings. UGH!

Then you call the 1800-HP-INVENT number and they want to trouble-shoot everything under the sun. "Yes, Ding-dong, I tried restarting it." "Yes, I know for a fact that it's not overheating because it's not ON long enough to overheat."

So, he has me perform some hard drive test.
"Yeah, turn it on and hit F2 repeatedly...."
"Ok, now turn it off."
"Now turn it on & hit escape repeatedly..."

Guess what: "It appears that your hard drive is faulty and we will need to replace the hard drive. We will mail you a new hard drive."
STEP ON THE BRAKES, PAL!!!!

I'm sorry. Are you f*cking stupid? I clearly haven't made my wants and needs transparent enough for you: when I said "Where will HP authorize me to take this laptop for evaluation & repair?" that's what I meant. WHERE WILL YOU FIX THIS? WHAT LOCAL OUTLET IS AVAILABLE TO ME AS THE CONSUMER?
This ya-hoo has gone on & on about my only two HP options: they can mail me a hard-drive that I can replace myself (because yeah, I know how to do that...) or mail me a box in which I can return my laptop & they will fix it for me.
Awesome---because that's what I want to do, wait on you guys to MAIL ME A BOX, so that I can fill it & mail it back to you...and be without my computer for even longer.

HP----your warranty program SUCKS. My computer is less than a year old.

You can fix this one. That's fine. But my next one won't be an HP. I'm just sayin'....

****************************
Oh crap. I just googled "HP warranty sucks" and ALL KINDS of stuff came up! One person wrote that they mailed their laptop to HP & HP claimed to never get it, and another wrote that HP promised to return it in 3-5 days, and they didn't & returned it a few days after the warranty expired.

...I'm going to get them to send me a hard drive!
And this is the LAST HP I will ever buy.
Ever.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

November....or at least parts of it.

Well, my laptop crapped out. Got a virus. Got something. It would only operate in 'safe-mode.' So, I had to get the photos off there & then have it wiped clean. But, ladies & gentlemen: I'm back.

I've got sooooo much to catch up on!!!!

Let's start with this:




Now, I believe that this might be photo evidence of the difference between boys & girls....but then again, I have no daughter to compare to, so perhaps it is not. Just look at the state of those papers! Is it sooooo hard to just put them in your folder every.single.day? On the whole, Gage puts his papers in his folder, but at least once a week papers just get shoved in the backpack & come home all crumpled like that.
{Now, Gagie, if that's the worst thing you ever bring home from school, you're golden!}

What else???
Oh! I have to show you my little pilgrim!!!!!
The Kindergarteners at Gage's school had a little Thanksgiving Program for us parents. So cute.



Daddy & I both got to attend, but then we had to go to work...hence the scrubs.






They also had college week at Gage's school with a different theme every day....
What do you want to be when you grow up? {This actually put Gage into a panic...he's not sure what he wants to be. He felt a lot of pressure to pick something & get it right...and bless his little heart, he just wasn't sure. I had to assure him that here in Kindergarten he was not actually choosing his life's profession; he could pick something & then not grow up to be that & it would be okay.}
So again, what do you want to be when you grow up: "An Army Dude."


On another day, you wear green & jeans because going to college puts more "green" in your jeans!


And then, you get to pick a college or university & wear a hat for that school and then wear a shirt for that college or university. Gage asked about the different schools that Mommy & Daddy went to, and ultimately he chose SMU {daddy, are you so proud!?}.

Hat day...


Shirt day.... (and yes, he had to wear the hat again...)

{And a big ol' Texas-sized "Thank ya" to Professor W for pickin' those up for us! (and if you could read the above sentence with a hearty Southern accent, that would be great.)}

Outside of Gage's classroom, I always love to see his work.
Imagine my surprise when I read about myself on his "I am thankful..." assignment.

Now, when I first read it, I thought I read, "she is thankful for AIDS."
I thought, "WHAT THE F***????"
Um....yeah, let's take a closer look:

"Ads." As in, "coupons."
Awesome.
If you really know me, this is HILARIOUS.

Also in November, Gage got to be the "Star Student" for the week. He was sooo looking forward to it, because when you are the star student, you also get to be the teacher's helper for a week. Guess what Gage learned: being the helper sucks! Teachers do a lot of hard work & he's officially excluded that as a future career. He also now knows exactly which of his classmates pick up after themselves & which ones do not. The only highlight of being the helper: you get to use the pencil sharpener.

Gage's Star Student Poster {and yes, being the 'Proud Momma,' I am going to show it whole & then all the various parts... He only gets to be the star student in Kindergarten ONCE!}















So, my next post will be about Thanksgiving. With that, I will leave you with Gage's drawing of a turkey:

Bacon Donuts.

Hubby, you should be so proud of me.
I tried something new today.

On the other hand---surely I could have tried something a bit healthier than a BACON DONUT!
{who comes up with this crazy stuff anyway!?}

Needless to say, I was in the minority & did NOT like it.
I don't like my meat sweet.
Bacon should be salty.
I don't drag it through syrup on its way to my mouth, and I don't want it atop a donut. Yucky.
I don't even like honey ham!
Meat should be salty, and donuts should be sweet.
I'm just saying.

...but at least I tried it.

Sex with Herman Cain? Ewwwww!

December 1: World AIDS Day.

Today is December 1st, World AIDS Day